Topic: PLS Help, Used Dueshter Mesiter Table value?

[JumpinJimmie]

I received a Dueshter Meister foosball table. The rods are a little rusted, but the table and playing surface looks brand new. It has two ashtrays, and the men are blue and red with yellow hair. Does anyone know what the value of a table like this is? Thanks for your help

[Old Meister]

While I can't speak for the rest of the world, I would totally love to have one as they were my favorite table back in the 70's. Where in the world did you find it?

[JumpinJimmie]

Bidding on a storage garage unit, and it was in the garage. When I got it home we wiped it down, and overal it is really clean. The playing surface looks brand new and the guys look really old style. Sticker is in perfect shape. One player was split, but we fixed him.I was able to find the same example on a web site that says they are no longer available

[Old Meister]

Deutscher Meister is still in business but I don't know if they still make that man. Try using a fine steel wool on those rods to spruce them up.  I'm jealous of you getting that table though. Today's top table is at the other end of the spectrum in terms of type of play from the DM so you won't get much response from younger players but us old schoolers have fond memories of playing the DM tables.

[bbjohnny]

Is this something that you are looking to sell?  What state are you in?

[JumpinJimmie]

Spokane Valley, Washington State.

[Tyler Foos]

JJ,

If what you have is one of the original Dueshter Meister tables from the 70's, it likely has the 'waffle foot' man, very similar in appearance to the early TS men. I have a few and would be glad to send you one. Some vintage era trivia - the very first Tournament Soccer tables used that same DM man and the very first TS tables that were sold had no center logo (virtually identical to the quarter million dollar greenie) and the DM waffle foot. Probably the most collectible of TS tables would be the quarter mil greenie with the waffle foot men, kind of a transition from test period to full blown production with their newly designed men with the horizontal lines on the foot.

Any chance of a picture?

Take care......................................Tyler

[JumpinJimmie]

 Thanks for the information. Looking at the table the men have the waffle pattern you described for feet. The blue team has yellow hair, and the red guys have brown hair. The goalies look a little different than the rest.

 The board is a green dimpled surface with white corners and has the a big dueshter meister emblem. The playibg surface looks and corners look brand new.

 I will get pictures and post for view. im not sure if i want to sell or?

[foozkillah]

Gawwwwddd,

I remember those Belgian Waffle feet...   Extremely raised grid pattern on the Deutscher Meisters..   Square toed, anyway..

I learned to control and shoot both frontpin (heelshots) and backpin toe shots with those hard plastic balls, even those weird hard hard hard "toy" miniature plastique soccer balls, that had the the simulated seams of a real 70's soccer ball.

Which is why to this day, pin control and pinned shots on the TS's, Dynamo's, Robertos, Tornado's and Warrior's are a joke to me, left or right hand ...  Best insane pin training ever...

[Tyler Foos]

Brian,

Belgian waffle - LOL! There wasn't much surface area for front or back pins, and you are right - learn on that table and any other is a breeze.

I'll try to post some pics in a little bit.

Tyler

[Old Meister]

If I remember right there was a real satisfying hollow wood sound when you shot a good hard shot.

[Tyler Foos]

Here are some pertinant shots:





I can't remember which table the first guy came from but his place in this evolutionary shot is clear. The Dueshter Meister men (waffle foot) were the first used on the TS tables but due to the solid rods (extra stress) they broke easily. The first TS men had a built up shoulder to help with the breakage issue, but eventually were redesigned with the hard plastic men with hats.

Brian - the belgian (LOL) foot had a very thin line where the foot met the ball on both front and back pins, and you can compare with the rounded bottom the TS upgraded men had. The foot pattern remained basically the same with the men found on the brown tops.

Side note - when the movie 'Long Shot' was filmed, the opening sequence had blue top men installed on a brown top table. The producer thought it looked more realistic.

Take care..................................Tyler

[foozkillah]

If I remember right there was a real satisfying hollow wood sound when you shot a good hard shot.

You got that right, OM!  Hitting the wooden backstop in the sweet spot resulted in a musical thooonk!  sound, like when you tap on a wooden flute or organ pipe.

I can't remember which table the first guy came from but his place in this evolutionary shot is clear. The Dueshter Meister men (waffle foot) were the first used on the TS tables but due to the solid rods (extra stress) they broke easily. The first TS men had a built up shoulder to help with the breakage issue, but eventually were redesigned with the hard plastic men with hats.

Yeah, that first man on the upper left must've come from the Shrek OgreMeister table.  And I always wondered why the earlier TS blue & reds kept breaking off at the middle, compared to the waffle figures on the Deutsch Meisters.  The Deutsch Meisters figures seemed to be a lot more durable, but you're saying it was the stress of the solid rods huh?

Brian - the belgian (LOL) foot had a very thin line where the foot met the ball on both front and back pins, and you can compare with the rounded bottom the TS upgraded men had. The foot pattern remained basically the same with the men found on the brown tops.

I remember playing pin control on those "Belgian oar paddle feet" was like playing with gridded boat oars on their sides.   As for the TS greens/blues vs the brownies, perhaps the pattern was similar, but the initial response was a lot better on the blue and red TS figures for a set pushkick.  And for tic tacs.   There was a lot less feel side-to-side with the robot player figures on the browntops, especially with the "Coca Cola bottle" handles, with more insulation from "feel".

Side note - when the movie 'Long Shot' was filmed, the opening sequence had blue top men installed on a brown top table. The producer thought it looked more realistic.
Take care..................................Tyler

Realistic?  From which reality?  LOL!  Tyler, if you remember, that movie was filmed during a certain era arising immediately out of the late 60's & early 70's.  And like 99% of their fellow indie film and TV production brethren back then, I am sure that the movie's original film-makers had generous amounts of certain hemp relatives for breakfast, multiple medicinal doses of certain barbiturates and amphetamines for lunch, and impressive amounts of brain-bending and mind-altering chemical compositions for dinner.  On a thrice-daily basis.   I'm pretty sure it looked way cool in the producer's mind, whichever dimension of near-reality he was currently sliding into at the time.

[Tyler Foos]

Brian,

Man, this thread is really jogging some memories of some great times! While in college (75-79) most of my foos time was spent on the Rene Pierre (Bonzini clone) in our dorm and the Dueshter Meister tables at a couple of the local bars. On Christmas break, probably 1977, I found out that my best friend was a good player on TS (first contact with Tournament Soccer), that he actually worked for the company (he is in the Replay 5th anniversary issue - very collectible item) and he had a table in his basement. It was a green top with the DM waffle foot men, one of the early tables. The next winter he had the new and improved blue top with the horizontal grooved men. I remember him saying that TS strengthened the new men by building up the shoulder around the rod and improved control by redesigning the foot and using hard rubber instead of plastic, to make them less brittle and have more reenforcement where they usually started to crack. A couple of years later the brownie came out with the plastic men with hats, and it was pretty cool to see a new table in his basement each time I visited him.

The reason I bring this brief history is that the info he gave me is pretty much my source for my comments in this thread. Now, I really don't know if the DM men, which were definitly used on the early TS tables, were actually made by Dueshter Meister or if DM bought them from the same manufacturer TS did. The waffle foot men have no patent info on them (I checked the 40 or so that I have) so they may or may not have actually been produced by DM - I always have assumed they were but don't really know. I never saw any other type men on DM tables, but that may not answer this question.

As for your experience with breakage, I rarely saw a DM table with broken men but those rods were very light. If memory serves me correctly, my TS friend said that it was the extra torque produced by the solid rods that exposed the weakness in the DM men. When you commented that the DM men were more durable, did you mean on a DM table or TS table?

What would be really fun to play would be a DM table with the TS red & blue guys. The DM table could actually pin better than you'd guess, based on the small contact area of the waffle foot. And LOL to the thoooonk sound - man I miss those good old days! Oh, the more I think about it, the Long Shot table used the red & blue guys because they looked more 'life like'. LOL to your 'realistic' comments! You have a great sense of humor.

Take care............................................Tyler

[Tyler Foos]

Oh, and don't forget the lemon Pledge for the rods! To this day, whenever I polish some furniture I get that 'I wanna play some foosball' pavlovian response! LOL

Tyler